


Meltdown

by oswin42



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Aspie!Martin, Autism, Meltdown, caring!Douglas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-20 07:19:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4778486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oswin42/pseuds/oswin42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>really just what it says on the tin. Martin having a meltdown. (undiagnosed autism). And Douglas having a really sad secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meltdown

They were delayed for hours. Martin hadn’t slept well and the constant sounds were just painful for him. He clenched his fists.

“This is idiotic,” he complained. “We’re pilots. And we’re sitting with all the passengers.”

“Yes Martin,” Douglas replied, annoyed. “We know the tourists are annoying. We don’t like it and we heard you the first fifteen times. Even Arthur is fed up.”

“Yeah Skip,” Arthur said quietly while sorting his m&ms by color. “Can’t this just be over?”

“I think the line is moving,” Douglas said suddenly.

The line was indeed moving and they were at the checkpoint half an hour later. They let Carolyn through first, and Arthur went second. He was met with some surprise when he talked happily to the man patting him down, but it went without issue. Douglas went after Arthur, andwas searched as well. Martin’s hands were shaking a little now. He clenched his fists more as he stepped forward. The man gave Martin a quick look.

“Papers please?”

Martin handed his identification papers with surprise. The rest didn’t have to do that.

“Right, Mr Crieff, you’ve been randomly selected. Please come this way.”

Carolyn gave an annoyed sigh and turned to Douglas “Do something.”

“What do you expect from me Carolyn?” he asked while taking a deep breath to try and remain calm. He had to throw out everything he meant to smuggle back home because of the bomb threat. “I can’t do bloody miracles. If they pick him, they pick him.”

 

“Any reason why you might feel nervous?” asked the guard sitting opposite Martin.

“I’m fine” He replied with more calmness than he expected of himself.

“Are you sure?”

Martin swallowed. This was no time for pride.

“The noise is a bit much,” he admitted quietly. He hated having to but not telling would make things worse. Even he could see that.

“Do you have anything to hide?”

“No,” Martin said cooly. “If you could hurry, I have a plane to fly.”

“Do you mind if we search you and your bag?”

“No.”

They didn’t find anything and after a tense few minutes he joined Douglas, Arthur and Carolyn. They walked to GERTI. Martin’s hands were shaking even worse and he didn’t react when Douglas asked him a question. Nor did he reply to Arthur’s attempt to cheer him up. He looked like he was about to start crying. They got into GERTI. Douglas, sensing there was something up, did the walk around.

“Martin?” asked Carolyn.

Martin didn’t reply.

“Martin?” she tried again as she laid a hand on his arm. Martin cringed and pulled away almost violently at the sudden intrusion of his personal space. A small, strangled cry came out of his mouth at the same time. This caught the attention of Douglas, whohad just come back into the plane.

“What’s going on?” he asked worriedly.

“I don’t know,” Carolyn replied.

“Martin?” Douglas tried. Martin didn’t reply.

“Martin? can you hear me?”

Martin nodded shortly.

“Do you want to go into the flight deck?”

Again, Martin gave a short nod.

Douglas turned to Carolyn “It’ll be alright, but give us some time please.”

He turned back to Martin “We’re going to the flight deck now. Alright?”

Martin gave the same small nod. His hands were shaking heavily now.

“Is it okay if I touch your hands? Just your hands.”

Martin thought for a moment, but then nodded once more.

Douglas took Martin’s hands in his and led him to the flight deck. He sat him down.

“I’lll be back in less than a minute, I am only getting you some water, Okay?”

Martin shook his head roughly and he whimpered a little. He curled up in his seat and hugged his knees.

“Alright. I’ll stay here. Don’t worry. It will be okay.”

Martin started sobbing softly. His body shook.

“It’s okay Martin. You’re safe.”

Martin kept looking at their hands as the tears slowly stopped streaming over his face. He finally started to calm down.

Martin tried to say something but only a whimper came out.

“Martin,” Douglas said a little more insistently. “Martin. You need to drink some water now. Is it okay if l go get it now?”

Martin didn’t want Douglas to leave, but he was thirsty. He nodded slowly.

“I will only be one minute. I promise, only one minute. You can even count the seconds. Okay?”

Martin nodded again. Douglas let go of Martin’s hands and left the flight deck for 37 seconds (Martin counted them).

“See?” Douglas said with a smile as he walked back into the flight deck, “Less than a minute. Do you want help with this?”

Douglas held out his bottle of water. Martin shook his head and took the bottle. He attempted to take the cap off and failed, handing the bottle back to Douglas. Douglas didn’t seem to mind for once and opened the bottle for Martin.

“It’s alright Martin. Just drink some water. Do you want a painkiller too?”

Martin nodded again. Douglas handed him the painkiller and Martin took it.

“I would like to measure your pulse now, Martin. Is that alright?”

Martin nodded and held out his free hand. Douglas took Martins wrist and counted the heartbeats. He seemed to calm down slowly.

“You’re doing really well Martin,” he reassured his captain.

They sat in silence for a while. Douglas kept hold of Martin’s wrist and Martin stayed in his seat.

“T-Thank you” Martin finally said ten minutes after they had walked onto GERTI. Douglas gave him a kind smile.

“It’s alright.” Douglas reassured him again.

“S not.”

“Martin. It’s alright. I promise. Do you want to talk about it?”

“w-what h-happen-happened?”

“It looks like you had a meltdown.”

“How.. How would y-you know?”

“Martin, I’m going to tell you something no one else here knows about me. You know I was married before. I had a son in my first marriage. My son had autism. When everything got too much his head would just sort of shut down. Just like you did just now. He wouldn’t be able to talk. When he was little all he’d do was scream and hit everyone who tried to touch him. When he got older he’d just curl up and go quiet. Like what happened to you.”

“But-but...”

“It often goes undiagnosed when the person doesn’t have behavioral problems.”

“No”.

“I’m not saying you have autism, Martin. I’m just saying it looks like it. But I don’t think we should talk about it right now. You tell me when you feel good enough to go home. It’s a short flight so I can do it by myself if that’s better for you.”

“You do it,” Martin said quietly.

“Alright captain. I’m just going to tell Carolyn and Arthur we’ll leave soon. You stay here.”

 

“Douglas?” Martin asked after they’d landed “You really think I have autism then?”

“Martin. For once it doesn’t matter what I think.”

“Only now?” Martin replied with a weak smile.

“Good to hear you’regetting your humor back, Captain.” He replied “Now, would Captain want a lift home?”

Martin nodded and suddenly thought of something. “Douglas?”

“Yes?”

“What did you mean with had? You said you had a son. Past tense.”

Douglas went quiet. His expression turned sad while he looked away and sighed.

“He died.” He said after a long moment of silence. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

They fell silent until Douglas turned back to Martin.

“So ride home then?”

“Please”

 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm not going to pretend this is much good but I just had to write it down, mostly because I wanted to share how a meltdown can look like. this can change with everyone and even every meltdown can be different.  
> PLEASE DON'T USE THIS FIC TO DEAL WITH A MELTDOWN. SOME PEOPLE CAN REACT VERY VIOLENTLY TO TOUCHING.  
> But the asking clear questions and the double checking everything is probably good.


End file.
